Team
news and stats ahead of Chelsea vs Rennes in the Champions League group
stage on Wednesday; kick-off 8pm.
Team news
Christian Pulisic will miss Chelsea's Champions League clash with Rennes at
Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.
The USA forward tweaked his hamstring in the warm-up at Burnley on Saturday,
and was withdrawn from the Blues' 3-0 Premier League win.
Pulisic has avoided serious injury, however, with boss Frank Lampard hoping
to have him back in action soon.
Rennes will be without Daniele Rugani and Eduardo Camavinga, who have both
being ruled out through injury.
However, they are boosted by the return of midfielder Steven Nzonzi after
serving a suspension.
The coach: Julien Stephan was part of Rennes' coaching staff before stepping
up to replace Sabri Lamouchi as boss in December 2018. They won the Coupe de
France that season and third place in Ligue 1 last term has taken them into
this first Champions League campaign.
European pedigree: Rennes' Champions League bow this term comes after Europa
League campaigns in each of the last two seasons - getting to the last 16 in
2018-19 was their best run in the competition.
Form: Rennes' Group E matches to date have been a 1-1 home draw with
Krasnodar and 1-0 loss at Sevilla. They are third in Ligue 1 having lost
only one of nine fixtures and won five of them.
Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard praises new goalkeeper Edouard Mendy after
keeping four clean sheets in his last four games
Opta stats
Chelsea and Rennes have never previously faced in any competition.
Chelsea have lost just one of their nine home UEFA Champions League games
against French sides (W5 D3), a 2-1 defeat against Paris SG in March 2016.
Rennes have lost their two away European games in England - in August 2001,
they were beaten 1-0 by Aston Villa in the Intertoto Cup and in March 2019
they lost 3-0 to Arsenal in the UEFA Europa League.
Chelsea have only suffered one defeat in their previous 15 home games in the
group stage of the UEFA Champions League (0-1 v Valencia last season),
winning nine and drawing the other five games in this run.
Rennes are on a five-game losing streak away from home in major European
competitions (excl. qualifiers), with four of the defeats in this run coming
since the start of last season).
Chelsea are yet to concede a goal in the UEFA Champions League this season,
while they last started a campaign with three consecutive clean sheets in
the group stage in 2009-10, under Carlo Ancelotti.
Rennes have only kept one clean sheet in their last 12 games across all
European competitions (2-0 v Lazio in the UEFA Europa League last season),
conceding 18 goals in total in this run.
Chelsea's Timo Werner has been directly involved in 11 goals in his last 13
appearances in the UEFA Champions League (eight goals and three assists),
including six goals in the most recent six (three goals and three assists).
Rennes forward Serhou Guirassy has scored three goals in his last five games
in major European competitions (excl. qualifiers), including his team's only
goal in the UEFA Champions League so far this season (v FK Krasnodar).
Hakim Ziyech scored his first goal for Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League
on MD2 (v FK Krasnodar), while he could become just the third player to
score on his first two starts for the club in the competition, after Didier
Drogba in 2004 and Daniel Sturridge in 2010.
top